Are advances in technology making speakers better?

@op - you would be far better off spending the price difference on upgrading the rest of your signal chain than going from D3 to D4 B&Ws.

If you are thinking about Magico, you should also listen to Wilson and Borresen for further points of comparison.

The rest of my signal chain is in great shape.  I invested quite well in all the stuff supporting the speakers and i can now accommodate superior Magico speakers. 
 

My philosophy is to avoid the upgrade cycle by buying top of the line products.  My speakers were not top of the line and I need to change this.

Most important component in a system is the speakers which are supported by a cast of characters that live in a rabbit hole.

If a manufacturer tries to masterbate the economy with upgrades every few years or even months, should we trust them to make their designs a labor of love? I don't trust manipulative people or corporations. There is too much fraud and snake oil in the audio business: claims that millimeter differences in signal path distances in speaker cables "smear" the signal traveling at the speed of light, skin effect which attenuates speaker signal current only a few hundredths of a decibel at frequencies slightly above human hearing vs DC current, "golden ratio" litz construction of power cables, and battery biased interconnects. 

Compare your system's sound to what you hear in a live concert hall and follow the advice everyone else gave on this question.

There are no advances in speakers. But companies have to sell in order to make a profit so they have to keep on producing so called better speakers. The reality is most speakers are just wooden boxes with drivers in them. It has been that way for decades but the public have been duped. 

@mbmi wrote:

One thing no one ever mentions when talking about speakers....Speakers have voice coils and they take up to 30 minutes to heat up and expand. THAT’S when you’ll hear the optimal sound from that speaker...not until. People will run their electronics to warm them up but always when doing so......run the signal at low volume thru your speakers....after 20 - 30 minutes , then do your serious listening. This is according to Steve Deckert. And he’s Right. The sound clanges pretty dramatically after about 20 min. Try It.

I've gone over this phenomenon at quite a few junctures here, so glad to see you bringing this up. Personally I find it takes elevated volume levels for about an hour or more to bring about the proper heat-up effect of the voice coils to have the speakers open up and loosen more fully, but being my main speakers + subs are high efficiency with bigger voice coils it might explain why this process takes a bit longer and requires more volume. In any case it's an important aspect of system warm-up to be aware of apart from thinking of electronics alone.